THE TOSS OF A LEMON

Viswanathan, Padma

ISBN 10: 0151013438 / ISBN 13: 9780151013432

Published by Harcout, Inc., New York, N. Y., U.S.A., 2008

About this Item

Advance Reading Copy. Spanning the life of one woman (1896-1962), THE TOSS OF A LEMON brings us intimately into a Brahmin household, into an India we've never before seen. Married at ten, widowed at eighteen, left with two children, Sivakami must wear widow's whites, shave her head, and touch no one from dawn to dusk. She is not allowed to remarry, and in the next sixty years she ventures outside the family compound only three times. She is extremely orthodox in her behavior except for one defiant act: She moves back to her dead husband's house and village to raise her children. That decision sets the course of her children's and grandchildren's lives, twisting their fates in surprising, sometimes heartbreaking ways. Inspired by her grandmother's stories, Padma Viswanathan masterfully brings to life a profoundly exotic yet utterly recognizable family in the midst of social and political upheaval. 'THE TOSS OF A LEMON is a captivating novel that in relating the story of one Indian woman and her family tells the story of a changing society. Precisely and deftly written, constantly interesting, morally serious yet sympathetic--I challenge any reader to start reading this book and give up on it.' {Yann Martel, THE LIFE OF PI}. THE TOSS OF A LEMON is the debut of a major new writer. New ARC in pictorial wraps. 640 pp. L66.

Seller Inventory # 12012

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE TOSS OF A LEMON
• Publisher: Harcout, Inc., New York, N. Y., U.S.A.
• Publication Date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0151013438
• ISBN 13: 9780151013432
• Binding: ARC
• Edition: First U.S. Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: New
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Seller catalogs:
  • Modern Literature

About this title

Synopsis

In a fiction debut to rival The God of Small Things, Padma Viswanathan gives us a richly detailed and intimate vision of an India we've never seen.

Inspired by her family history, Padma Viswanathan brings us deep inside the private lives of a Brahmin family as the subcontinent moves through sixty years of intense social and political change. At the novel's heart is Sivakami, a captivating girl-child married at ten to an astrologer and village healer who is drawn to her despite his horoscope, which foretells an early death -- depending on how the stars align when their children are born. All is safe with their daughter's birth, but their second child, a son named Vairum, fulfills the prophecy: by eighteen, the child bride Sivakami is a widow with two young children.

According to the dictates of her caste, her head is shaved and she must don the widow's white sari. From dawn to dusk, she is not allowed to contaminate herself with human touch, not even to comfort her small children. She dutifully follows custom, except for one act of rebellion: she insists on a secular education for her troubled son. While her choice ensures that Vairum fulfills his promise in a modernizing India, it also sets Sivakami on a collision course with him. Vairum, fatherless in childhood, childless as an adult, rejects the caste identity that is his mother's mainstay, twisting their fates in fascinating and unbearable ways.

The Toss of a Lemon is heartbreaking and exhilarating, profoundly exotic and yet utterly recognizable in evoking the tensions that change brings to every family's doorstep. It is also the debut of a major new voice in world fiction.